SS07-16-06.

STUDY THEME: MY DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE. 7-16-06.

“I WILL FOLLOW GOD’S LEADING.” EXODUS 13: 17 TO 15: 21.

EXODUS 13: 17-18, 20-22, ; 14: 5-6, 10, 13-13-31; 15:2, 11-13.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO EXODUS 13.

In today’s lesson we are moving from last week’s Exodus 4 where God called Moses to lead His people from Egypt back to the Promised Land to today’s Exodus chapters 13 to 15. You will want to read Exodus chapters 7 through 12 to be reminded of the disasters that struck Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to not only let the people leave Egypt in the year 1440 B.C., but in Exodus 12: 29-42 following the death of the first born sons of the Egyptians Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Get out, you and your Israelites. Go and worship the Lord as you asked. Leave my country; take your sheep, goats, and cattle and leave the country. Also pray for a blessing on me.”

The Egyptians also urged the people to hurry and leave the country; they said, “We will all be dead if you don’t leave.” The Israelites carried away the wealth of the Egyptians when they left.

The Israelites set out on foot from Ramases to Sukkoth. There were 600,000 men, not counting women and children; a large number of other people, or other nationalities, and many sheep, goats, and cattle went with them.

There is no question that the migration out of Egypt is the single most important event in Hebrew history. More than anything else in history, this event gave the Hebrews an identity, a nation, a founder, and a name, used for the first time in the very first line of Exodus, the biblical account of the migration of “the children of Israel.”

What had begun as a family of 70 had by this time grown to a great nation numbering between two and three million people. The Exodus event is contained in Chapters 1-18.

The Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years. On the day the 430 years ended, all the tribes of the Lord’s people left Egypt. In Exodus 12: 43-51 the Lord gave Moses and Aaron the regulations for observing the Passover

Let’s see why the Israelites did not take the shortest and quickest route to the Promised Land.

1. PLEASE READ EXODUS 13: 17-18.

The overall theme of Exodus is Redemption! God’s bringing back His people from the slavery of sin and bringing them into His presence (a foreshadowing of God’s plan for all man-kind through Christ.”)

The climax of the entire Old Testament is recorded in Chs. 12-14: the salvation of Israel through blood; (the Passover) and through power (the Red Sea). The Exodus is the central event of the Old Testament as the cross is of the New Testament.

After over 400 years, God led that vast host of men, women, and children out Egypt to go conquer and inhabit the land He had promised to Abraham and his descendants.

The route God led them seems to be strange at first glance. The easiest way from the northeast delta of Egypt to Canaan was the road to the land of the Philistines, called the Via Maris or the “way of the sea.” This route was the nearest and easiest of possible routes travelers took when they journeyed from Egypt to Canaan, and also it was the route the Egyptians had fortified heavily.

But the Lord did not lead them that way because He knew that once the Israelites encountered the powerful warriors of the Philistines they would return to Egypt and thus fail to fulfill God’s covenant purpose for them.

There were good reasons for this large group to avoid a war at this time. They were former slaves, with women and children among them. God did not want them to have the whole group involved in war. Meanwhile, the Lord would fight for them.

Applying this principle to believers, we can affirm that God takes into account our weaknesses when He leads us. Another application is that God sometimes leads us in the ways we do not expect. The Israelites probably assumed they would take the most direct route, but God led them by another route.

There was another reason the Lord led the people in a different direction. They needed to visit Mount Sinai and enter into covenant with God. Therefore, God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea. This route had its own dangers. The Israelites could have been attacked from the rear and pinned against the Red Sea. This, of course is actually what happened.

Another reason for this apparent detour was to put the Israelites into such an impossible situation that their deliverance could be explained only as an act of God. He therefore led the people around toward the Red Sea along the road of the wilderness. From the human perspective this seemed to be the most illogical course of action imaginable.

Why would the Lord, whose intent was to lead His people safely to the land of Canaan, put them in a vulnerable place that jeopardized their very existence? The answer seems to be twofold, one apparent in the text and the other implicit. The Lord Himself stated His rationale in Exodus 14: 4, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them, Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”

The Egyptians’ defeat would prove beyond question that the God of Israel was superior to all the so-called gods of Egypt and to Pharaoh’s mighty war machine.

More important, perhaps, the Israelites would understand their deliverance as demonstrable evidence that their God was well able to keep His word to them both then and in the days to come. He alone is God, and He alone is adequate to save. This was central to Israel’s confession of faith, but the words of a creed were powerless unless God validated the words by action. God’s people needed to understand their strength lay outside themselves. They had to learn that any hope for success in the future would derive from their great God whose exodus triumph guaranteed them similar deliverance out of all possible difficulties.

Understanding Israel’s experience makes possible a degree of insight into God’s leading in our own lives. When we proceed on our own, we find opposition on every hand. Usually we don’t even know the dangers are there until later. Compliance with God’s will delivers us from dangers both seen and unseen until by retrospect we see how marvelous His provision for us had been.

We have no promise of a life free of challenge. We often are hemmed in by circumstances that seem inescapable. We need to acknowledge our weaknesses and depend on God.

God works in all believers’ lives to help them avoid situations that can weaken their faith. How does God help His people know and follow His ways? His tools are many. For example, God uses His Word to teach us His will. He uses mature believers who help us avoid falling into temptation’s trap.

He answers prayers others pray for us that we might not wander unknowingly into situations that might weaken our faith.

Some of you may have watched the move at 8: P.M. Sunday night, on channel 9, “Saving Milly.” Milly had to walk home alone. She prayed for God’s protection when she started. She prayed again before she entered the ally. In the ally she saw a man, but hurried on through.

The next day she read in the paper where a woman had been raped in that alley about 20minutes after she went through.

Milly went to the police and told them she had seen a man in the alley. They asked if she could identify the man. They lined up a line of men and she identified the man at once. She asked permission to ask the man a question. She asked, “Why did you not attack me in the alley?” The man replied, “Because there were two people with you.” God had sent his angels to protect her. Her faith was strengthened upon learning of God’s protection.

2. PLEASE READ EXODUS 13: 20-22.

From the beginning of the Israelites’ journey to Canaan, God’s presence was constantly with them. The Israelites set out for the Promised Land from Succoth and then camped at Etham, probably oases, nothing more than stopping points in the desert.

The Lord had been with Israel in Egypt and now He was with them as they left the land of their slavery. His presence was signified by a pillar of cloud by day, that became a pillar of fire at night. Although the text might be understood to suggest that there are two pillars, the traditional understanding of the description is that there was one pillar, which had a fiery core enveloped by clouds. In daylight the cloud’s brightness was rendered less intense by the shining of the sun, but in the darkness the inner radiance of the fire shone through and lit up the surrounding area.

‘Cloud’ refers not so much to a distinct cloud, as to a mass of clouds.

It is not usually associated with the onset of rain, but suggests impenetrability. Lamentations 3:44 says, “You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.” Fire is also associated with the presence of God. The pillar was thus a visible manifestation of God’s presence and glory, which while pointing to what He is, still conceals Him from human gaze. This seems to be what vs. 20 says. There was one pillar in which the Lord went before them.

The pillar not only showed the presence of God but also guided the Israelites in the way God wanted to go. When the pillar moved, they moved where it moved. This purpose of the cloud is seen in the words “to lead the way and to give them light; to go by day and night.

The pillar also protected them. God took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

An example of this protection can be seen in what happened when Pharaoh’s army drew near. The pillar moved to a position between the Israelites and their pursuers. On the Egyptian side of the cloud, all was dark; however, on the Israelite side, all was light. The pillar of cloud and fire continued with the Israelites until they were ready to enter the Promised Land. It is mentioned many times in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The purpose of the cloud was to signify the presence of the Lord with His people. When they could see the cloud by day and its fire by night, they knew the Lord was near and with them., This became a visible sign of His presence.

. The Israelites had God’s constant guidance and protection during their 40 years of wilderness travel.

We need to understand that the reality of God’s constant presence is more perceptible in the experience of followers of Christ. The Holy Spirit’s filling us in the age of the church means that the Lord is always present.

Paul asked in 1 Cor. 3: 16, “Don’t you know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” In a more personal and individual sense, he chided the Corinthians in I Cor. 6: 19, for misusing their bodies and reminded them that, “your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God.”

In the Person of God’s Spirit He guides us into truth in John 16: 13, assists us in our praying in Rom. 8: 26-27, and enables us to live in victory over carnal lives and appetites in Gal. 5: 16-18. The Spirit within all believers leads us to victory in Jesus at all times.

PLEASE TURN TO EXODUS 14.

3. PLEASE READ EXODUS 14: 5-6, 10, 13-14.

Pharaoh was receiving reports of the Israelites’ route of march. It seemed to him that the Israelites were confused. He said in Exodus 14: 3, “They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.”

Pharaoh’s hard heart led him into what would prove to be a rash action. He and his people were having second thoughts about letting their slaves leave the land: “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” No doubt some of the Egyptians were also regretting giving their treasures to the slaves.

As noted previously, God’s leading the Israelites toward the Red Sea was intentional despite the sea’s being a potentially dangerous obstacle on their journey. It was God’s purpose to bring about a final showdown with Pharaoh so that God would “receive glory” and “the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” (v.4). This showdown occurred at the Red Sea

Pharaoh made ready his chariot. He called out all his army. “He took 600 of the best chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with an officer in each one.

Normally a chariot had a driver and an archer. Pharaoh seemed to have added a third person, an officer. Pharaoh also took his cavalry and his army, and they caught up with the Israelites near the Red Sea.

When the Israelites saw the Egyptians, many of them panicked. They were terrified at the sight of this mighty force of armed men and their fearsome horses and chariots. As the Israelites had done in their captivity, they cried out unto the Lord.

And they did what they would do whenever things did not go well---“they turned on Moses. In vs. 11-12 they said, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Both the Egyptians and the grumblers among the Israelites seemed to have forgotten how the Lord had brought them out of Egypt. Moses spoke to the frightened people. He tried to calm them down by telling them not to be afraid. He urged them, Fear ye not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today.

The salvation of the Lord refers to the Lord’s deliverance from whatever threatens His people. The Israelites were in another seemingly hopeless situation. In Egypt they had been helpless slaves: now the entire Egyptian army was coming toward them. Their back was to the Red Sea. They seemed to have no recourse other than to surrender and be returned to slavery---or to be killed by the army or in the Red Sea.

Moses promised the terrified people, “The Lord shall fight for you.” The Israelites realized they could not fight for themselves against such a formidable enemy. The chariots seemed to them like tanks would seem to us today. Moses told them, “Hold your peace,” “You need only to be still.”

Here is where we see God pictured as a warrior fighting for His people. The lesson the people had to learn was that their deliverance was from God alone. The description of the Lord as fighting marks the beginning of the theme of the “Divine Warrior” which figures largely in Ch. 15.

Through out the ancient world, war was considered to be a sacred undertaking, in which the honor of the deity of a nation was at stake, and this view is also found in Scripture. Note the description of the “Book of the Wars of the Lord” in Numbers 21: 14, and the later, but often repeated, like “the Lord of hosts’ or ‘the Lord Almighty’ as it is rendered in the NIV (first found in 1 Samuel 1: 3).

The origin of this divine designation is spelled out in 1 Samuel 17: 45: “The Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel.” Here we see the Lord as the champion of His people fighting the hostile power ranged against them so as to obtain their freedom and doing so solely by the exercise of divine power.

They were about to witness the Lord’s Salvation. A basic meaning of salvation is deliverance. In the case of the terrified Israelites, deliverance entailed being rescued from an Egyptian military force intent on re-enslaving them.

However, we can discover broader applications of this biblical concept by looking closely at vs. 13-14. Salvation involves something you desperately need but cannot provide for yourself. Salvation entails the overcoming of an enemy you cannot overcome. Salvation means the Lord will fight for you. And salvation demands that you stand firm in faith, trusting fully in the Lord’s presence, power and purposes.

These applications can have a destiny-changing impact for the spiritually lost. The Lord who provided physical deliverance for the Israelites at the Red Sea is the God who has provided salvation from sin to all who put their faith in Jesus. We can never save ourselves from sin’s bondage.

We cannot by our own ability escape sin’s brutal, eternal death grip. But in Jesus, God struck a decisive blow against sin and its shadow, death. In Jesus sacrificial death, burial and resurrection God has defeated forever the ultimate enemy of His people.

God’s salvation is more than a one-day deliverance. Salvation has a definite beginning when we put our faith in Jesus, but it also continues every day along our journey of faith. Even when God leads us through fearful situations for His glory and so that He might be made know to others, we need not give in to our fears. We can depend on God to help us.

4. PLEASE READ EXODUS 14; 31; 15: 1-2, 11-13.

Exodus 14: 16-28 recounts the miracle of deliverance that became the unforgettable centerpiece of Israel’s understanding of the Lord’s salvation.

God told Moses to move the people forward. Then at God’s command Moses lifted up his staff and stretched out his hand over the sea. The pillar moved from in front of the people to behind them. The cloud made darkness of the side of the Egyptians and shed light for the Israelites.

God parted the Red Sea and held back the waters while the Israelites passed on to the other side.

Then the waters returned and all the Egyptians perished. “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.”

This was the second phase of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Like the first phase, the l0 plagues, the deliverance was from the Lord. When Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, they feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.

Safely on the opposite shore, the Israelites watched God miraculously destroy one of the most powerful military forces of the ancient world. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. Israel’s faith in the Lord deepened: The people feared the Lord and believed in Him. Not only did their faith in God increase, so too did their confidence in His servant Moses.

Some cynics say this account is fiction. They cite the fact that archaeology has found many Egyptian messages but never has found confirmation of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

In the 180 years since hieroglyphs were deciphered, no Egyptian text has ever been found that refers directly to the Israelite exodus. It is unlikely that such a text will ever be found.

The reason for this is not that the exodus did not occur, but that the Egyptians did not want to admit that it occurred. From the point of view of their propaganda, they would not admit that such a defeat had occurred because it would have impugned the divinity of Pharaoh.

The Israelites were so grateful for God’s deliverance that they sang. Exodus 15: 1-21 records their songs. Vs. 1 says that Moses and the children of Israel sang. Vs. 20-21 mentions Miriam and the women singing.

The song in 15: 20-21 has been called “the song of Moses,” but others call it “The Song of the Sea.” The song exalts the Lord as the deliverer of Israel. Although Exodus 14: 31 says the deliverance led to faith in the Lord and Moses, the people clearly saw God as the deliverer. Only He could have delivered the people.

The people’s faith was expressed in personal terms: I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. “Notice the use of I and My in vs. 1-2 also looks backward by referring to my father’s God.” The Israelites saw this deliverance as the continuing work of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Vs. 13 has a future look---

“You will lead the people you have redeemed with Your faithful love:

You will guide them to Your holy dwelling with Your strength.”

Vs. 11 does not mean that the Israelites believed the gods of other nations were real, but, that they were revered by pagan people. Either way, the Lord had won the victory.

Music and singing can express not only meaning but also deep feeling. The Israelites were so relieved, excited, and grateful that they sang rather than just spoke their praises to the Lord. Songs like this are scattered throughout the Bible, and the longest book in the Bible is the Hebrew hymnbook---the Book of Psalms.

Singing is what God’s people do in response to what He has done for them (and what they expect Him to do in the future.) Many of the Psalms, for example, praise God, not in the abstract, but for some concrete act of deliverance, whether on a personal or a national level.

The author of Psalm 40, after recounting how God gave him ‘a firm place to stand,’ writes, ‘He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.’

Many people see the hand of God in deliverances in history. In May 1940 the German army had forced the British soldiers into a perimeter around Dunkirk on the French coast. The British seemed doomed to death or surrender. But the British decided to seek to evacuate as many as possible of their soldiers.

The Royal Air Force committed planes to try and protect the men on the beach and those wading to their ships. A call went out to owners of private boats, and hundreds of small boats went to do their part.

For some reason, Hitler ordered his panzers to stand down. The Germans apparently believed they could finish off these troops after they totally defeated the French. As a result of all these factors and a fog and a sandy beach that kept bombs from doing their worst, about 340,000 British and some French soldiers were carried safely to England. All their equipment was lost, but the men were able to fight again. Churchill called it “a miracle of deliverance.” He admitted that wars are not won by evacuations, but the deliverance gave the Allied cause a reason to rejoice.

The miracle of Dunkirk was not the same level of miracle as the crossing of the Red Sea, although many people see the coming together of so many unlikely factors as providential instead of coincidental. Nevertheless, the feelings of the British survivors were something like the feelings of the Israelites on the other side of the Red Sea.

Because of what they had witnessed, the Israelites were able to look hopefully and clearly toward God’s future for them. Such a shift in focus is indicated in our English translation by a change from past tense to future tense between verses 12 and 13.

Two actions of God are highlighted: (1) the Lord will lead the people with tender love; and (2) the Lord will guide them…with strength

Israel’s destination was not merely to reach the eastern shore of the Red Sea. They had been redeemed so that the Lord might bring them to His holy dwelling. From the Red Sea God would lead Israel to Mount Sinai, then to the Promised Land, and then in time would establish Jerusalem and its temple as the place He would cause His name to dwell.

Much later the Prophet Isaiah foresaw that in the last days the Lord’s dwelling place would draw people from all nations to come and learn God’s ways so they could “walk in His paths.”

In the N.T. John’s vision of the final new heaven and earth brought about by the redeeming work of Jesus Christ included the reality that “God’s dwelling is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God”

What an awesome destination God is leading His people to---His holy dwelling!

Just as Israel did long ago, we as believers today can find ample reasons to celebrate God’s power and guidance throughout our lives. And looking back on previous incidents of`

Gods leading can help us follow Him in present and future decisions.

During WWII the Japanese had a great number of ships moving toward the Coral Islands and Australia under a tremendous fog and cloud cover. In the Coral Seas the fog lifted and our search planes spotted the Japanese armada. So many Japanese ships were destroyed that the armada never reached its destination. We were reminded that God creates and controls the fog and the clouds.

NEXT SUNDAY FROM EXODUS 15 AND 16 “I WILL REMAIN LOYAL TO GOD.”

A. V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net http://www.theweeks.org/av/